Colourful Cupcakes {Review of heART Studio Part II}

So the little girl did drawings of a knight and a fairy in her first art project at heART Studio. While I was happy to let her pick up some drawing techniques, I was also wondering if she would find it slightly mundane because I assumed that she would have preferred to paint or do some colourful stuff.

Let's just say that the teachers at heART Studio have it all thoughtfully planned out for the students because for this next project, the kids in Little Dali did something totally fun and yes, absolutely colourful! They made CUPCAKES!

See those pictures of cupcakes on the wall and the cute little drawing that Teacher Syafiq did on the whiteboard? Well, they sure look tempting to me and made the little ones excited to get started on this new project. All the kids had a choice of the colours they wanted for the cake, icing, cup liner and the toppings, and they could also pick their favourite cake design too.

Guess what? Instead of painting, we were even more elated to find out that the first lesson was going to be a clay project! So yes, every kid had to make a clay cupcake. Every time after they had chosen a colour for a part of their cupcake, it was time to go 'shopping'. Teacher Syafiq would tell them to pick out pieces of a certain colour of clay, for instance "Take two pieces of red and five pieces of white" and the kids would have to do so accordingly. Besides understanding colour combinations, it was also a great opportunity for my three-year-old to practice her counting!

As the clay was a little hard to start with, Teacher Syafiq would use a hair dryper to soften it a little so that it gets easier for the kids to shape and work with.

Bit by bit, part by part, Ariel started to build her cupcake! I could see that it was rather challenging for her at times to get the right shape and thickness and that was when the teacher would step in to help. But did she try her best? Yes, she did. Playing with clay was also a good way for her to work on her fine motor skills too!

Next, she had to work on the details by using a stick to draw short lines on the icing and dots on the liner. I could see that she enjoyed this part and took meticulous care to do them one by one instead of rushing through.

To finish off her clay cupcake, she had to roll a piece of clay to form a long strip which would go around the cup liner. Lastly, she also added a cherry and her favourite sprinkles too. Check out how her cake looks like at the end of the lesson!

I must say I was surprised by how nicely it was done and she was so proud to present it to me. One thing is for sure, we are definitely going to keep this for as long as we can!

In the following weeks of the project, the students had to work on painting cupcakes and donuts - a total of four artwork for each child.

As usual, they had to choose the colours for their background. Out of the four pieces of artwork, two were done using a warm coloured background and two had a cool coloured one. The teachers added quite a bit of water to the paint to dilute it and tasked the kids to paint using short strokes or circles.

I must say that my girl would get distracted every now and then because she would be curious to see what others were doing. At times, she continued painting on the same area and risked making a hole in the paper!

Thus, the teacher would have to remind her to pay attention which was a tad hard considering that the teacher had quite a number of students to attend to in the class. I also realised that while she was the youngest in the class at three years old, there were a couple of other kids who were already five. So, it was apparent that the standards of the kids varied and this was why Teacher Syafiq and Teacher Vinky had to separately keep an eye on each group - the bigger kids and the smaller ones.  If one of them was absent, it would be especially taxing for the other teacher to guide and help every kid.

So, while I always believe that teachers should minimise the holding of hands to guide the kids, it happened a few times, especially when Ariel drew out of line or forgot to alternate her colours. Nonetheless, the teachers were extremely patient with her and that was something that I appreciated.

Since this was her first painting project, her colours were kept minimal and designs were kept simple. This helped her to make progress and get on to a good start. It wasn't hard to see that she enjoyed every class and was always looking forward to the next one.

Here's presenting her final cupcake paintings! Not bad, right? Yes, her donuts were quite straightforward because she ran out of time but I really liked what she did with the cupcakes!

So, that marks the end of her colourful cupcakes project. Teacher Syafiq told her to bring along her favourite toy for the next class and we can't wait to share with you on what she will be doing! Till the next post!

Disclosure: This is Part II of a series of reviews of heART Studio. Ariel attended complimentary lessons for the purpose of this review. All opinions are our own.